BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Two Kurdish leaders reiterated Monday demands for Kurdish autonomy within the framework of a democratic and parliamentary federation in future Iraq.
Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan made separate declarations underscoring the "Kurdish people's right for self-rule" under an Iraqi federation.
Barzani was quoted as telling followers in the city of Halbaja in northern Iraq that he will demand a correction of the agreement signed between the Iraq Governing Council and U.S. Civil Administrator Paul Bremer on the transfer of power to include a clause granting Iraqi Kurds federal rule within the framework of a united and single Iraq.
For his part, Talabani told the British government's representative in Iraq, Jeremy Greenstock, that "it is the legitimate right of the Kurdish people to have its own enclave in a democratic and federal Iraq."
The KDP and PUK have shared control of Iraq's Kurdistan since 1991 when Baghdad relinquished control of the region in the wake of the second Gulf war.
